When he saw the way the vote was going, Gav just picked the ticket up from the mantlepiece and deposited it into his jeans pocket.

Gav is making up the rules as he goes along and demands that I'm not allowed to read his post, so I can only guess what case he has made for the ticket. I think I should have the Burnley ticket for the following reasons: 1) The whole reason we don't have a ticket each is Gav's fault. He asserted (as only Gav can) that we wouldn't sell out, so I didn't queue at the ground from before daybreak whilst constantly on my mobile to the ticket office. 2) I have a season ticket and Gav doesn't, so if we apply the allocation rules of the club for this game (which both Gav and myself believe to be fair) I have more right to the ticket. 3) I haven't been a rovers fan as long as Gav as I grew up outside the area, so have only attended the previous two Derby games, both of which we won. I have also attended the Turd on two other occassions supporting the visiting team (Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday). I have never seen Burnley win when I have been watching them in person. So I reckon I am unlucky for Burnley. That means you're taking a big risk if you don't vote for me. Will you be able to live with yourselves if we lose and you voted for Gav?

really cletus - strange that because if you look carefully you will see the Longside (Home Section) and Bee Hole are actually quite full, whilst the away section was empty - we must have been playing your lot Certainly wasn't taken in 1987 against Colchester when only 1700 turned up Massive support

sorry that was me (again)

MCMC said: "The reality in Blackburn is that there is not really a multiplicity of cultures, But ROUGHLY 35% Asian 65% non-Asian. This has created an 'us and them' situation where the two communities mix like oil and water." Actually the 'reality' is that just under 19.3% of Blackburn's population is of South Asian origin (10.6% of Indian background and 8.7% of Pakistani background), according to the 2001 Census. I lived in inner City Sheffield for 14 years in an area that was 35% Asian. My son went to a school that was 48% Asian. Since moving to Blackburn I have been amazed how completely separate the two communities are compared to where I lived in Sheffield and I do think it's unhealthy. When talking to people about this, they always seem to lay the blame for the 'us and them' situation at the Asian community. However, surely historically there was a gradual process whereby white people moved out of Audley, Whalley Range, Bastwell, etc to be replaced by Asian people. As I understand it, those areas were more densely populated in the 50's and 60's as the first generation Asian immigrants arrived, so at that stage th two communities were living side by side. I wonder whether white people moved out of these areas because they didn't want to live along side Asian people, if it was due to the poor housing, or if there were other reasons. Certainly when I was buying my house in Blackburn there was a perception that I wouldn't want to live in many areas of Blackburn because I am white. In terms of football support, we need to generate some fans from somewhere. People of all races seem to be staying away. I remember a few years ago the club targeted North Lancashire and the South Lakes as an area of potential support, giving away free tickets to school children and parents in Lancaster, Morecambe, Kendal and Barrow. I seem to remember that being very popular with messageboard members at the time. However, applying the same approaches to an under-represented group of fans closer to home seems to be abhorrent to many now. I wonder why that is.

I'm reserving my judgement until I find out what impact this decision has on Jan's on-off season ticket situation.

I'm sure that the Board, players and fans will all rest easy now they know Jan's renewed her season ticket.

Is that you again Gav No, Gav only has eyes for Mark Atkins!

Alan, you didn't ask Tim to marry me! what a missed opportunity.

I must have completely missed the point. I thought the top five were voted for by the public tonight.

errm ... the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, Catch 22, Iain Banks and George Orwell all made it into the big read list!

I read Catch 22 when I was about 19 and wasn't impressed at all. I reckon I didn't understand it properly. I am thinking of reading it again following John Sergeant's film. We could do mb 'virtual' reading group - God, I really don't have a life, do I!

I've just watched the big read too. I've read about half of the books in the top 100. and three of the top 5 and would have gone for Pride and Prejudice out of that list. I never manged to get into Harry Potter so haven't read that goblet book. I also haven't read His Dark Materials but my son consumed the whole trilogy in about 2 weeks when he was 12. Him and his mates all loved it. I had dismissed it as tedious fantasy, but watching the big read programmes has made me want to give it a shot. I was suprised how many children's books made it into the top 21. My favorite books in the top hundred are probably One Hundred Years in Solitude, Anna Karenia, the Grapes of Wrath and Great Expectations. I'm reading Rory & Ita by Roddy Doyle at the moment.

I reckon it must be really hard for the club to predict interest in European ties. Even though we could be confident that Celtic would catch the imagination more than other away fixtures it must be hard to work out the extent of this in advance. All that can be done is to look at previous attendance behaviour of rovers fans in Europe and in cup competitions. On the whole we have a small away following in the league and in cups, with strange fixtures like Southampton away pulling in the crowds for some reason. Our home gates for European ties have been poor in recent years. I’ll never forget when we qualified for the UEFA cup the last time. A near capacity crowd stayed behind the last game of the season (Newcastle?) singing in celebration of being in Europe but when we played Lyon at home only about 15,000 turned up, and recently only about 18,000 turned up at Ewood to watch rovers return to European football. There’s no argument that the club have predicted wrongly on this occasion but I can’t blame the club for getting it wrong because I think that rovers fans have a tradition of being quite unpredictable.

Of course I'm not blaming GAVIN,the blame is entireley on the club for being far to cautious (tickets for Celtic),and far too soft(tickets for Celtic fans,at Ewood).Negative GAVIN,did'nt even bother to queue for a ticket this morning,as he was swanning around in hic car.BUT,it seems he's landed himself with a ticket,well done GAVIN.The worrying thing is theres only a 2800 to one chance of him sitting next to me.God imagine that. Why so bitter Blue Flush? Those of us season ticket holders who went to Sofia were able to put in postal applications on Saturday, as mentioned lots of time on this thread and others. That's why we were at work and 'swanning about' in cars.